Today is July 13, and it is snowing in northern Alaska. In Athens they are having the driest summer in years. Temperatures have risen to over 106 ‘F and the beaches have been crowded since 8 o’clock this morning. On the other side of the world, people in parts of Australia are experiencing the worst floods in a century.
In a small building in the city’s downtown area, tony is surprised to find an army of meteorologists carefully studying the latest weather ‘’surprises’’ with computerized charts. The phone rings constantly as local residents call in to hear updates on the weather and to double-check forecasts that they heard on the news.
Meteorologists are not the only ones who look for unusual signs. TV weather reporter Ross Lindy recalls, ‘’My mother used to say that it was going to rain every time the cows lay down in the fields, and she was always right!’’ Many older people have their own ‘’methods’’ of predicting the weather, but nowadays things are more scientific. In fact, it is surprising how even a child can make day-to-day predictions with just a little bit of information. So how is the weather actually forecast?
If you want a more scientific approach, then you need to do your physics homework. We know that the earth is heated by the sun during the day. If skies are clear and blue, then more heat reaches the earth’s surface. As a result, temperatures will be higher.
However, if you are a more advanced forecaster, you can check the weather map to see where there is a cold front. If the atmosphere is also very humid, then you may see rain. The weather map will also tell you where there are high or low pressure centers. None of these methods needs special knowledge or technology.
Unfortunately, improved technology was not much help in predicting some of the natural disasters that have happened in the last decades, like the torrential rains and floods that have occurred in different parts of the world.